Top tips to help manage your money

Next week 26th January - 30th January is StepChange Awareness Week. We at QuidCycle are passionate about seeing people achieve financial success many have been in for years. We have the following tips to help you manage your money and financially fruitful lifestyle.

Be honest and take responsibility

Next week 26th January - 30th January is StepChange Awareness week. We at QuidCycle are passionate about seeing people achieve financial success many have been in for years. We have the following tips to help you manage your money and financially fruitful lifestyle.

Be honest and take responsibility

While some reasons for borrowing arise out of situations beyond your control such as a redundancy, relationship breakdown or a downturn in company business, some also arise from generally spending more than you earn. Despite the reason for the borrowing, face it head on. Take responsibility and then take some steps to resolve it. Whether that means contacting your creditors to find a solution for your current situation before they contact you, or taking on small jobs to earn extra income, or cutting down on some of your expenses. It can be a very frightening and anxious time, but there are companies out there who can help when repayments become overwhelming. If you cannot afford to pay anything more, at least make the minimum payment. Although making the minimum payment doesn’t help you make real progress in achieving financial success, it may keep slow the money owed from growing. When payments are missed, it becomes harder to catch up and eventually your accounts could go into default.

Don’t be too proud to ask for help

If you are already in financial difficulty, there are many companies who can help. Do not be tempted to bury your head in the sand. Find out how much interest you are currently paying and research how you can reduce that. Research carried out by QuidCycle shows that 43% of people are unaware of the alternatives available to them. The lives of UK families are very busy and often people do not take the time to research their options in order to get the best possible deals available. More often than not, they will turn to traditional bank loans and pay higher interest for the privilege. Take some time to do your research, you may be paying more than you need to. At QuidCycle, our average APR is 11%. Borrowers are offered a cash incentive of up to 4% should they make their payments on time and complete online financial education and advice. All these are aimed at helping our borrowers achieve financial success and eventually become investors themselves.

Budget monthly

Do not be tempted to “keep up with the Jones’s”. The CEO of QuidCycle advises people to “keep to your own value system and run your own budget. Know how much you earn. Know how much you need to spend. Never spend more than you earn, delay gratification.” Avoid being caught up in a lifestyle that forces you to overspend. Make a list of your known expenses on a monthly basis and a list of the money you might need for entertainment or an emergency fund and then set aside monies for that. Save for the things you want and need, do not be tempted to use your credit cards, it can become a slippery slope to bad money management. If you do need to use your credit card, set up a direct debit to pay off the whole balance on a monthly basis. Setting aside a small set amount of money each month to go into an “emergency fund” for those unforeseen expenses is a good idea so you have available funds when you need them. Without access to savings, you would have to borrow to cover an emergency expense. Even a small emergency fund would cover little unforeseen xpenses that come up every once in a while. We would recommend working to create a £1,000 emergency fund initially and once you have that in place, make it a goal to double this fund and eventually build it up so that you have six months living expenses in reserve.

Use cash

If you are struggling to be diligent with your expenditure, wherever you can, use cash. That way you will not be tempted to use credit cards or store cards to purchase items you may not need. Keep your receipts on a monthly basis so you can refer to them and find out how much you really spend in a month. This will help you set a more realistic budget.

Cut down on unnecessary expenditure

Some household expenses like utilities are a necessity . However, if you are struggling with your finances, cut down on those unnecessary expenses, such as Sky TV, Lovefilm subscription …etc. Use the cash to pay off any money owed. Once you have your money matters under control and extra cash left, you can reinstate them. Avoid being tempted to continue with them and you will have taken one step closer to achieving financial success.